Ladies and gentlemen, the following public service message is brought to you by your friends from D-Generation X, who would like to remind each and every one of you that if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you... New set-up would keep teams closer to home (sports.espn.go.com)

The NHL has floated the idea of realigning its six current divisions into four, mainly aligned with time zones, according to a story on TSN of Canada's Web site.

According to the report, six club executives met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this week to consider potential plans. They're taking ideas from those talks back to their teams, TSN reported.

In other words, nothing's set in stone yet.

Here's what it would essentially boil down to:

One eight-team and one seven-team division in each conference.

Top two teams in each divisions would be locked into #1-#4 seeds, with the rest determined by points.

The Northeast (Canadiens, Senators, Maple Leafs, Sabres, Bruins) would remain intact and be joined by the Penguins and one of the Southeast teams (my guess would be the Capitals since they would be the closest travel-wise).

The other Eastern division would include the New York-area teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils), the Flyers, and the other four Southeast teams (Thrashers, Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers).

One Western division would include all teams in Pacific or Mountain time zones (Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Avalanche & Coyotes).

The other Western division would include all Western teams in Central or Eastern time zones - this would include the Central (Predators, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Blues) plus the Wild and the Stars.

It doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me - the only major rivalry that would really be broken up under this plan would be Flyers/Penguins, and even then, that might get destroyed anyway if the arena situation in Pittsburgh doesn't work itself out somehow. (And if the Kansas City rumors turn into actual action, then you just swap 'em with Columbus and you're none the wiser geographically, if totally sporting a big hole tradition-wise for the short term).

This also gives the NHL the opportunity to schedule fewer inter-conference matchups (there are too many of them now, IMO), and gives you two obvious openings for future expansion should the league ever get its act together financially.

smark/net attack Advisory System Status is: Elevated(Holds; June 18, 2006)While the switch from Cena to RVD should alleviate some complaints, the inevitability of the belt's return to Cena (note where Summerslam is this year) and the poor initial showing by the new ECW are enough to keep the indicator where it is for now. The pieces are in place, though, especially on RAW, for improvements to be made to the IWC's psyche in the near future.

The NHL has floated the idea of realigning its six current divisions into four, mainly aligned with time zones, according to a story on TSN of Canada's Web site.

According to the report, six club executives met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this week to consider potential plans. They're taking ideas from those talks back to their teams, TSN reported.

In other words, nothing's set in stone yet.

Here's what it would essentially boil down to:

One eight-team and one seven-team division in each conference.

Top two teams in each divisions would be locked into #1-#4 seeds, with the rest determined by points.

The Northeast (Canadiens, Senators, Maple Leafs, Sabres, Bruins) would remain intact and be joined by the Penguins and one of the Southeast teams (my guess would be the Capitals since they would be the closest travel-wise).

The other Eastern division would include the New York-area teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils), the Flyers, and the other four Southeast teams (Thrashers, Hurricanes, Lightning, Panthers).

One Western division would include all teams in Pacific or Mountain time zones (Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Ducks, Kings, Sharks, Avalanche & Coyotes).

The other Western division would include all Western teams in Central or Eastern time zones - this would include the Central (Predators, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, Blues) plus the Wild and the Stars.

It doesn't sound like such a bad idea to me - the only major rivalry that would really be broken up under this plan would be Flyers/Penguins, and even then, that might get destroyed anyway if the arena situation in Pittsburgh doesn't work itself out somehow. (And if the Kansas City rumors turn into actual action, then you just swap 'em with Columbus and you're none the wiser geographically, if totally sporting a big hole tradition-wise for the short term).

This also gives the NHL the opportunity to schedule fewer inter-conference matchups (there are too many of them now, IMO), and gives you two obvious openings for future expansion should the league ever get its act together financially.

The schedule would break out to 6 games against divisional opponents, 3 or 4 games against the other division in the conference, and 1 game against the opposing conference

20 teams need to support the proposal for it to take effect.

It looks fine to me, though I don't know why you flip Atlanta and Columbus, taking Atlanta away from the Florida teams.

(edited by kwik on 22.12.06 2243)For reasons of creative incompetence, this space will be left blank. Advertising opportunities are avaliable though!!! Contact (Number removed due to pending litigation) for details!